The Mumbai Fire Brigade is preparing itself to handle rescue operations all over the city in case of an emergency arising this monsoon. For the first time ever, 10 firemen went to the scenic town of Kolad, about 150 km away from Mumbai on the Goa Highway last week, to attend a course in flash flood management organised by a Canada-based NGO International Rescue Instructor's Authority (IRIA). Experts James Lavelly from Canada and Jeremy Hunter from UK trained the firemen in disaster management, in-commandant support and actual water rescue in the rough river waters of Kolad .

To minimise loss of life and property during a hazard, either natural or man-made, some sort of management is necessary. Since the people in Developed Countries are conscious about hazards and have developed systematic and flawless management strategies, they are able to counteract eventual menace substantially.

Sri Lanka has taken significant strides in disaster prevention and mitigation since the Boxing Day catastrophe in 2004, said Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe launching the seventh meeting of the regional Committee on Disaster Management yesterday. While calling the tsunami as an eye opener, the Minister noted that the country had come a long way with an effective mechanism in place today to counter such disasters in the future.

About 40 national societies under the Red Cross and Red Crescent umbrella had decided to engage themselves in capacity-building programmes aimed at understanding and addressing the impact of climate change on humanity.

Politics mustn't come in the way of relief efforts in Myanmar

Law Secretary Habibul Awal yesterday said that the government is formulating a disaster management act with a view to giving the country's disaster management programme an institutional shape. He said a draft of the proposed act is now at the final stage while the views have already been taken from all stakeholders including the Ministry of Law, said a press release. The law secretary was addressing the 2nd day of a three-day workshop, organised by Disaster Management Bureau at the Relief Bhaban.

To tie up with traffic department, railways and cellphone companies to keep citizens informed This monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will rope in a brand new slew of initiatives to cause minimum inconvenience to citizens during emergencies or major floods. While civic officials seeking to monitor water-logging will soon approach the Traffic Police to set up a mechanism to obtain video feeds from 64 important traffic junctions that the traffic department's CCTVs monitor for traffic offences, real-time weather updates will also be uploaded on the BMC's all-new portal.

The number of people affected by floods and landslides over the past few days has topped the 65,000 mark with 26,797 affected in Gampaha alone, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said yesterday. According to the DMC 67,498 people have been affected by the floods and landslides as of yesterday with 17,180 affected in Ratnapura, 2,969 affected in Kalutara, 26,797 in Gampaha, 15,664 in Colombo, 255 in Puttalam, 4,425 in Kegalle and 208 in Nuwar Eliya. There have been eight deaths reported so far and one person missing while 1,350 people have been housed in IDP camps.

Floods and landslides which accompanied the heavy deluge, specially during the last two days, were showing signs of receding but had left nine people dead and over 50,000 affected in eight districts, authorities said yesterday. Weather experts predict more heavy showers accompanied by lightning and strong winds during the next 45 days (specially after two weeks) with the monsoon reaching its climax.